Friday, August 07, 2009

PSF - Adam's Steady Hand

It was fairly hot during our visit to the National Zoo in Washington DC, but I still choose to bring my heavy telephoto lens so that I could get close-ups of the animals. It was a good choice since the pandas were far away as well as some of the birds. Adam wanted to have a try, so I gave him my camera in one of the aviaries.

Adam and my camera as captured by my iPhone. Apparently, it is impossible for me to stop taking pictures.

I told him that he had to be v-e-r-y steady and focus carefully as it was hard to get a clear shot. Even at the highest ISO (1600), the best exposure we could get at 300mm was 1/160 sec, which can be blurry with the slightest hand shake. I fully expected to delete all his photos afterwards. Here's one of his shots:

This is a Nicobar pigeon from Southeast Asia. Who would think a pigeon could be so colorful and beautiful? I was pretty pleased with the clarity of his shot, but wanted to get more of the pigeon as it was obscured by some foliage. I tried taking this shot:

I got more of the pigeon but it is blurry! Adam actually took a better shot than I did. Way to go Adam, I'm so proud of you!!